There's one Doctor Who moment that haunts Steven Moffat to this day...
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00:00 Look, we all make mistakes.
00:01 You make mistakes, I make mistakes, the Doctor makes mistakes.
00:05 Still, it's not often you hear the cast and crew actually acknowledge the things that
00:09 went wrong with the show, but sometimes they do.
00:11 I'm Ellie for WhoCulture here with 10 Doctor Who Mistakes Confirmed by the Creators.
00:17 10.
00:18 Clara being too passive
00:19 Companions are meant to evolve during their time in the TARDIS.
00:22 As the Thirteenth Doctor tells her fam in Arachnids in the UK, you're not going to
00:26 come back as the same people that left here.
00:29 Only has this been quite as true as with Clara.
00:31 The Clara of Series 7 is almost a completely different character to the Clara of Series
00:36 8 and 9.
00:37 This radical reinvention was largely down to the Impossible Girl arc, which dominated
00:41 her first run of adventures.
00:43 Making the companion the series arc was an interesting idea on paper, but in practice
00:47 it created problems, as Stephen Moffat has admitted.
00:50 He said, "One of the difficulties with her Impossible Girl story was that she wasn't
00:54 actually a participant in it, because she didn't actually know about the mystery.
00:57 It was always the Doctor fussing about it.
01:00 She was completely oblivious until the very end, so it doesn't change her hugely."
01:03 Moffat adjusted in Series 8 and made Clara a much more active character going forward,
01:08 though some would argue that he overcorrected.
01:10 I would be one of those people.
01:12 9.
01:13 Susan's squandered potential
01:15 As the Doctor's first on-screen companion, Susan holds a special place in Doctor Who
01:19 history.
01:20 She was also his granddaughter and an alien in her own right, but sadly this is something
01:24 the writers quickly seem to forget.
01:26 Making a promising introduction in An Unearthly Child, Susan was treated more as a human teenager
01:31 than a Time Lord, playing second fiddle to the other leads.
01:34 It's a great frustration looking back, not least for the woman who played her.
01:38 Reflecting on her decision to leave the series, Carol Ann Ford recalled that "It had become
01:42 so repetitive.
01:43 For a large part of the time, Susan was arriving somewhere with her grandfather and the other
01:47 two, being told not to get into danger, having them come and get her out of danger, then
01:51 flying off again.
01:52 In the meantime, I was watching visiting actors do really interesting stuff."
01:56 Ford wanted Susan to be a much more interesting character.
01:58 She came to the show as a trained dancer, acrobat, swimmer and horse rider, but was
02:02 given no opportunity to use these talents in the scripts.
02:05 She was also told Susan would have telepathic powers and a cool wardrobe, neither of which
02:10 happened.
02:11 Given that was 60 years ago, it's probably too late to make amends.
02:14 Though, who knows what the future holds.
02:16 This is Doctor Who, after all.
02:18 8.
02:19 Redacting Wild Blue Yonder
02:20 Speculation for the 60th specials was dominated by the mysterious middle instalment, Wild
02:25 Blue Yonder.
02:26 This was a deliberate move from Russell T. Davis, who wanted to take one of the episodes
02:30 and, quote, "try to reveal nothing about it."
02:32 This approach extended to all aspects of promotion, with trailer clips obscured by static and
02:37 redacted text, and three redacted actors in the cast list.
02:41 But did it work?
02:42 Well, that depends on who you ask.
02:43 The secrecy did successfully preserve the plot and the villains, however it also allowed
02:47 fans to get carried away with their own theories, with many convinced that past Doctors and
02:52 Companions would appear.
02:53 Even Russell T. Davis is conflicted.
02:55 He explained to the official Doctor Who podcast, "This is actually the simplest one of the
02:59 lot.
03:00 That's why I kept it secret.
03:01 But I wonder if that's had an unfortunate effect and made it disappointingly simple."
03:05 Ultimately, he had the right idea, but some of the marketing was still needlessly secretive.
03:10 Did Isaac Newton and Mrs. Meridue, characters who don't appear beyond the pre-titles,
03:14 really merit the redacted treatment?
03:17 Perhaps we'll be able to appreciate the mavity of this decision one day, but as it
03:20 stands, we're not convinced.
03:22 7.
03:23 Resolving the Daleks Resolution was a new type of festive special,
03:26 not so much a coda to Series 11 as a second finale.
03:30 Chris Chibnall would be the first to admit that Series 11's actual finale was fairly
03:34 lacklustre.
03:35 The version of the Battle of Ranskor Av Kolos that went before cameras was actually a first
03:39 draft.
03:40 He told Doctor Who magazine in 2022, "I really attacked Resolution, so hopefully I
03:44 made up for it with that one."
03:46 Many would agree, but there was one thing that fans took issue with, the fact that the
03:50 Daleks were completely absent from the marketing.
03:53 Instead, promotion focused mostly on Jodie Whittaker's scarf.
03:57 This allowed the reveal of the Dalek to be a surprise, but it also meant that the episode
04:01 potentially lost whole swathes of viewers by not showing it off ahead of broadcast.
04:05 Even Chibnall concedes that this might not have been the best strategy.
04:09 He said, "We were torn between keeping it a secret or not, and I'm not sure that
04:12 we got that call right."
04:14 Thankfully, Revolution of the Daleks put the villains front and centre in the marketing.
04:18 It was a "have your cake and eat it" approach, allowing the defence drones to make a splash
04:22 without detracting from the episode they appeared in.
04:24 Win-win.
04:25 6.
04:26 Four to Doomsday's Froggy Failings
04:28 Four to Doomsday saw the Fifth Doctor go up against new foes, the Abankans.
04:32 But not everyone was convinced by how they came across on screen, cast and crew included.
04:37 Stratford Johns, who played their leader, Monarch, had initially leapt at the chance
04:41 to play an evil space frog, feeling that it would help him overcome typecasting.
04:44 But when he was presented with a solid mask to wear, Johns refused on the grounds that
04:48 it would limit his performance.
04:50 In one interview, he recalled phoning the director and saying, "If you've got ideas
04:54 like that, why don't you get another fat actor?
04:56 If nobody can recognise me, there's no point paying my money."
04:59 As a compromise, a thin latex mask was agreed upon.
05:02 But even then, Johns was disappointed, believing he looked unrecognisable.
05:05 Meanwhile, writer Terence Dudley had different reservations about the Abankans.
05:10 Having envisaged the creatures as completely frog-like, rather than humanoids with frog
05:14 heads, he was dismayed with how they were depicted, later describing the story as a
05:18 quote "travesty".
05:19 Sadly, Dudley died long before It Takes You Away was broadcast, but on that basis, we're
05:25 sure he would have been delighted by the Solid Tracks Ultimate form.
05:28 Johns, not so much.
05:30 5.
05:31 Series 9 Stale Opener In a show that's been going as long as Doctor
05:34 Who, it's important to offer jumping on points for new viewers, usually by introducing
05:39 new leads.
05:40 In recent years, almost every series has abided by this logic, and in fact, on only four occasions,
05:44 has a main cast been carried over in its entirety.
05:48 Series 6, Series 7, Series 9, and Series 12.
05:51 Series 6 and 12's openers had different, unique selling points by way of overseas shoots.
05:56 Series 7's first chapter also featured scenes shot abroad, plus every Dalek ever.
06:00 It also technically saw new companion Clara make her debut, which leaves Series 9 as something
06:06 of an outlier.
06:07 The trailers had quite literally promised the same old, just the Doctor and Clara Oswald
06:11 in the TARDIS, with no new characters to look forward to.
06:14 Even the return of Davros wasn't publicised in advance.
06:16 Steven Moffat has since admitted that this was a mistake, recalling that, I quote, "I
06:21 feel as though I slightly fumbled it by not having a 'new thing'".
06:24 This is one of the reasons Series 10 ended up being so new, despite being Moffat's
06:28 last.
06:29 It's also why he opted to introduce Bill in the pilot, rather than the 2016 Christmas
06:33 special.
06:34 4.
06:35 RTD's Shelved Sequel Russell T. Davis's first era as showrunner
06:39 saw at least one classic villain return each year.
06:42 In 2005, we had the Autons and the Daleks.
06:44 In 2006, we had the Cybermen.
06:46 In 2007, we had the Makra and the Master.
06:49 In 2008, we had the Sontarans and Davros.
06:52 And in 2007, we had Rassilon and the Time Lords.
06:55 But as RTD has since lamented, he never wrote an out-and-out classic series sequel, as Chris
07:00 Chibnall did for the Silurians and Steven Moffat did for the Great Intelligence.
07:04 "I'd have run the old episodes on BBC Three all week, then shown the sequel on the Saturday,"
07:09 he said in 2020, citing 1977's Image of the Fendale as a story ripe for revisiting.
07:15 He said, "Imagine, Return of the Fendale, back in the ruins of Fetch Priory, ancient
07:20 evil stirs, Wanda Ventham reincarnated, I was so determined not to look back too much
07:25 I think I missed a trick there."
07:26 Of course, it's entirely possible that Return of the Fendale, or another sequel, will become
07:30 a reality in Russell's second era.
07:32 The Fendale could even be The Boss or The One Who Waits.
07:35 You heard it here first, folks.
07:37 Just in case it happens.
07:38 3.
07:39 The Sitcom Snog Series 5 is rightly heralded as one of Steven
07:42 Moffat's best, but there's one scene that sticks out like a sore thumb.
07:46 The end of Flesh and Stone when Amy kisses the Doctor.
07:48 It's not the first time the companion has kissed the Doctor, but in most other cases
07:52 the circumstances were different.
07:54 There was a plot reason, as was the case for Martha and Donna, or an implied romance with
07:58 the Doctor to begin with, for Rose and Astrid.
08:01 Flesh and Stone gives us something different, a companion forcing herself onto the Doctor,
08:05 in her bedroom, on the night before her wedding, to another man.
08:08 It wasn't exactly a great scene to begin with, but it's aged terribly, and even Moffat
08:12 agrees, citing it on more than one occasion as his single biggest misstep.
08:16 "I played it for sitcom-style laughs," he admitted to Doctor Who Magazine, "and
08:20 it doesn't work.
08:21 Brilliant episode up till that point.
08:23 And then I screw it up with sniggering sex comedy.
08:25 It rankles me to this day," he said in another interview, "because it's just wrong."
08:30 I'd say this is one to fix in the novelisation.
08:32 If he ever does one.
08:33 2.
08:34 The Plasmaton Problem There's nothing worse than an unconvincing
08:37 monster, and the Plasmatons rank as one of the most unconvincing of all.
08:41 They were envisaged as powerful, amorphous henchmen, and the whole point of the costume
08:45 was to hide the human shape, but they were blatantly just men in suits.
08:49 No thought was given to the actors' eye lines either, so they couldn't move independently,
08:53 save for the odd bit of lumbering.
08:55 As the big bads of the Fifth Doctor's first finale, they failed spectacularly, a fact
08:59 the man himself is under no illusion about.
09:01 They were just nothing at all, Peter Davison recalled.
09:04 It was just one more indignity that was heaped upon the story.
09:07 It was a real symbol that the BBC had run out of money.
09:10 What can we do for these Plasmatons?
09:12 Let's just make them lumps of polystyrene.
09:14 It's a trend that continued in the Fifth Doctor's other finales, with the execution
09:18 of Chameleon and the Magma Beast also leaving a lot to be desired.
09:22 However, the case of Androzani featured one of the show's most enduring villains in
09:26 the form of Sharaz Jek.
09:27 Every cloud, I guess.
09:29 1.
09:30 Matt Smith's Regeneration Regrets When Peter Davison was cast as the Doctor,
09:33 Patrick Troughton advised him to do no more than three seasons in the part.
09:37 It's an unwritten rule that generally sticks, as was the case when Matt Smith exited after
09:42 Series 7.
09:43 Stephen Moffat has since revealed that Series 8 was pitched as an Eleventh Doctor run, with
09:48 many of the same elements present - the Doctor questioning if he was a good man, and some
09:51 other characters, i.e.
09:53 Missy, trying to tempt him to a darker path.
09:55 It's not known how far these plans got, or how late in the day Matt Smith confirmed
09:59 his intentions.
10:00 Whatever the case, there was a feeling that the time of the Doctor was a slightly lacklustre
10:05 end to the Eleventh Doctor's era, and that certain plot points were wrapped up rather
10:08 hurriedly, and the man himself would seem to agree.
10:11 Was it the best episode it could be, Smith said in an interview?
10:14 I don't know.
10:15 Maybe, maybe not.
10:16 I was proud of the body of work up to that point, but I think everything can always be
10:19 better.
10:20 Is this him throwing shade at the time of the Doctor, or something more?
10:23 An admission that he should have stayed for that fourth series after all?
10:26 Either way, he seems less than satisfied with his Doctor's ending.
10:29 We know how to fix that, Matt Smith.
10:31 Come back in a cameo role.
10:33 Come back in a cameo role.
10:34 Did anyone else hear that?
10:36 And there you have it.
10:37 Make sure you also check out 10 times Doctor Who reused footage and hoped you wouldn't
10:41 notice.
10:42 In the meantime, I've been Ellie for WhoCulture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye
10:46 sweeties.
10:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]